9781422286777

STEM in Sports: Science by Jim Gigliotti

Science

Technology Engineering Math

STEM in Sports: science

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Science

Technology Engineering Math

THE STEM IN SPORTS SERIES

STEM in Sports: Science

STEM in Sports: Technology

STEM in Sports: Engineering

STEM in Sports: Math

STEM in Sports: science

by Jim Gigliotti

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Science

Technology Engineering Math

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

© 2015 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3230-9 Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4222-3233-0 EBook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8677-7

First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Produced by Shoreline Publishing Group LLC Santa Barbara, California Editorial Director: James Buckley Jr.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher.

contents

Introduction: What Is STEM?. 6 Athletes. 8 Teams. 22 Arenas, Fields, and Fans. 32 Gear. 44 Winning . . . and the Future. 58 Resources . 62 Series Glossary. 63 Index. 64

KEY ICONS TO LOOK FOR:

Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward area of further in- quiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that en- courage deeper research and analysis.

Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand defini- tions will increase the reader’s un- derstanding of the text, while building vocab- ulary skills.

Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to

Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore

the evidence presented here.

possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives.

Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains terminology used throughout this

series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field.

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introduction

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S TEM is the hottest buzzword in education. The letters stand for Science, Technology, Engi- neering, and Math. Those areas of study and work will be at the forefront of business, education, careers, and life for the coming decades. More jobs are opening up in those fields than in any other areas. But as this series shows, STEM is more than just program- ming computers or designing new apps. The concepts of STEM cross over into just about every area of life. In this series, we focus on how STEM is impacting the world of sports. This volume focuses on Science. What is science? A dictionary calls science “knowledge derived from observation, study, and experi- mentation in order to determine the nature or principles of what is being studied.” That def- inition covers more ground than Mike Trout does in center field! And it leaves as much open to question as soccer’s offside law. In sports, science touches on medicine, nutrition, strength and conditioning, perfor- mance analysis, and much more. Each indi- vidual part of STEM works hand-in-hand with the others, but science seals the deal.

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Chapter 1

athletes

F or as long as sports have been around , fans and experts have wondered: What makes a great athlete? Is he or she born with all that talent? Or is it a mat- ter of “practice makes perfect”? In his 2008 best-selling book, Outliers: The Story of Suc- cess , Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell suggested the “10,000-Hour Rule.” He said that it worked for any field—business, the arts, or sports. The rule simply means that working at a task for 10,000 hours over the course of a lifetime leads to success. For in- stance, Gladwell believes that he is a success- ful author because he spent more than 10,000 hours working on stories for newspapers

How many more hours will this player need before he has “mastered” his skills?

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and magazines. The Beatles became a great rock-and-roll band because they spent more than 10,000 hours in the recording studio, onstage, or somewhere playing music. And any elite athlete has easily gone over 10,000 hours playing and practicing by the time he reaches the top level of his sport. Gladwell’s 10,000-Hour Rule was actually based on the findings of a study by Anders Ericsson. Ericsson was a Swedish-born psy- chologist who found that elite performers in areas such as chess and sports got that way through extended, targeted practice. Coach- es have been saying that for decades, but science proved it. Like all scientific studies, Ericsson’s find- ings employed the scientific method. The sci- entific method is a step-by-step process from observation to conclusion (see box at right). The Quickest Way to First Base L et ’ s apply the scientific method to the world of sports. For instance, here is one question baseball fans ask: Is it better to dive into first base on a close play, or to run through the bag? As baseball fans can tell you, more often than not, the batter will run through first base. But when the batter dives into the bag, announcers and fans are quick to say that the player used extra hustle. “That guy will do anything to help his team,” they’ll

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND hacker in this case, slang for an unskilled golfer hypothesis a pro- posed solution based on limited evidence prosthetics devices that replace a missing human limb rehabilitation the process of returning to full physical ability through exercise torque the turning force on an object that produces the movement of rotation

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Quick Look: The Scientific Method Here’s something you’ve probably seen in science class—but it’s always good to review! The five steps in the scientific meth- od are observation, hypothesis, prediction, experiment, and conclusion. 1. A scientist observes something and does as much research as pos- sible before she . . . 2. Develops a hypothesis , or general theory about what she thinks about the phenomena, which allows her to make a . . . 3. Specific prediction about what she will be able to prove by an . . . 4. Experiment that is properly and fairly designed to test her hypothesis and arrive at a . . . 5. Conclusion about whether the hypothesis should be accepted or rejected.

say. But is diving really a better way to get on base? The hypothesis: If it is better to dive to the bag, more players should dive. Right? Well, ESPN’s Sports Science program put that hypothesis to the test. The scientists on the show measured the overall speed of a runner who goes through the bag. They com- pared it to the overall speed of a runner who dives at the base. They measured acceleration versus deceleration—that is, increasing speed or decreasing speed. Their simple experiment determined that when a player dives, he gets to the base

athletes

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Safe! This player ran through first base instead of diving and turned a possible out into a hit.

10 milliseconds SLOWER than he gets there by running. He gets to first base faster by keeping his feet on the ground. The conclusion: It’s better to run through the bag. As the show’s host John Brenkus says, over the span of the 90 feet from home plate to first base, the 10 milliseconds that a fast player loses by diving at the bag (he loses even more if he dives too early and slides into the bag) “equates to about three inches— the diameter of a baseball.” On a bang-bang

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play at first, that tiny amount could be the difference between out and safe. For decades, coaches and fans have debated the dive ver- sus the run. Science says: The dive is . . . out! Home on the Range G ladwell would argue that success in sports is not just a matter of physical ability but repetition. That repetition has to be targeted and correct, of course, or it won’t do any good. A golfer can go to the practice range every day, but if he’s practicing the

Backspin One of the biggest differences between the PGA golfers and the everyday hacker on a public course is the pro’s ability to stop his approach shot on the green by using backspin. That’s especially helpful when a flag is placed in the front of the green, or near water or a sand trap, or when running the ball up to the hole is not an option. Some golfers, like Phil Mickelson, hit shots that can back up 10 or 20 feet toward the flagstick if conditions are right. It’s almost as if they are pull- ing the ball back on a string! A golfer gets backspin on the ball because of the friction that is produced when the club hits the ball. The club head has small grooves, or lines in it. The ball compresses slightly into the grooves—it can’t be seen with the naked eye—and slides up the face of the club, which makes the ball spin backward. Any grass between the club and the ball will make it harder to spin and harder to control. That’s why all golfers want to avoid the long grass called the rough, and keep it on the short grass called the fairway.

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same things wrong over and over, he’ll never improve his score. That’s where science comes in. From equipment design to course building to swing analysis and even to weather prediction, science has long played a part in the evolu- tion of golf. At first glance, playing golf for money looks like the easy life. After all, what could be nicer than playing 18 holes in four or five hours and then having the rest of the day off? But the reality is, most professional golfers go straight from the practice range to the course . . . and then back again. They are constantly trying to get the tiniest edge possible in an intense field in which everyone competes at an incredibly high level. Vijay Singh, a Fijian golfer who has won 34 tournaments on the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour, is known for his legendary work ethic. He spends hours and hours on the range. He’s not alone. Actually, no golfer is alone on the range anymore. These days, a pro golfer is joined in his practice sessions not only by his caddie, but often also by a swing coach, a computer expert, and assorted other assistants to op- erate video cameras and provide immediate data analysis on the physics of his swing. Perhaps the most important factor in the distance a golfer hits the ball is the amount

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